The ETC offers many opportunities for UCLA students and faculty, outside scholars, and the general public to participate in virtual reality research. Classes and workshops are available on a rotating schedule. Our Research Fellow Program paves the way for UCLA student involvement. Internships provide funding for qualified scholars to spend time in residence with the ETC staff. And public demonstrations that include the work of the ETC are regularly scheduled through the ATS Visualization Portal. 

STUDY VR AT UCLA

Cotsen Institute of Archaeology:
In Spring of 2006, the ETC will be offering a graduate level course on the use of digital technology for humanities research. The class (Space, Place, and Visualization in Architecture, Archaeology, and Humanities Research) will be jointly listed through the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology and the UCLA Department of Architecture and Urban Design. More details will be posted as available.

Department of Architecture and Urban Design
UCLA's Department of Architecture and Urban Design Students offers MA and PhD degrees with an emphasis in visualization in architectural culture. The MA degree program in this area provides students with competency in the theorization, creation, and application of digital reconstructions of historic environments. In the PhD degree program, students move beyond basic competency to undertake original research exploring the application digital technology and architectural history and cultural heritage. The program includes courses in architectural history, representational/reconstruction theory, educational applications, and modeling theories, as well as computer programming and cultural virtual reality modeling. Students who graduate with a degree in visualization in architectural culture will be eligible for jobs in academia as well as in cultural management, education, preservation, museums, film, and entertainment. Among faculty advising in this area are Diane Favro and Robin Liggett.

For more information about the AUD Graduate Program, please contact Diane Favro (dfavro at ucla.edu)

FELLOWSHIPS

Research Fellow Program Links Students, Faculty and IT Professionals

At the heart of the ETC is a Research Fellow program in which students, professors and professional information technology staff join together to promote research and to create productionquality tools that can be used to further academic and pedagogical exploration. The program was created to steer and support the work of graduate and undergraduate students within the Visualization Portal, 3-D Modeling Lab, Technology Sandbox and Sound Lab. The Research Fellow Program is specifically aimed at developing applications that can be used across disciplines and at giving students the opportunity to work on a variety of cuttingedge modeling, visualization and sound projects.

The Research Fellow Program links a graduate student and a professor with information technology experts from Academic Technology Services and appropriate facility resources. The resulting projects have the dual benefit of pushing research in discipline-specific areas and also of creating new information technology tools that can be used across disciplines. The applications created within this program form a “toolbox” that is available to UCLA researchers and faculty and to ETC partners outside of UCLA.

Toolbox development involves the creation, development, documentation, and distribution of production-level, open-sourced software for specialized needs based on research initiatives. The tools developed for specific projects can be re-tasked to further research and exploration in other disciplines. The goal of such toolbox development is to adapt experiential technology developed at UCLA, bring it to production viability, and help others to find ways to use the tools for their specific research needs.

INTERNSHIPS

Lab Internships

In keeping with its educational mission, the lab is happy to offer internships to qualified scholars from other institutions of higher learning. To date, we have offered training to interns from Italy, Spain, and the USA.

Interns typically come to UCLA for a minimum of two months and stay a maximum of six months. They come to us with some pertinent background and experience, e.g., advanced study of architecture or archaeology; competence in the use of CAD or 3D modeling software; etc.

The conditions for internships are negotiated on a case-by-case basis. The general idea is that interns receive free training in the lab's methods and technologies, and they work one-on-one with lab staff, using the lab's hardware and software. In return, interns work without pay on a project that relates directly to the lab's current activities, and whatever the intern produces becomes the property of the lab. Interns need to cover their own travel and living expenses.

To apply for an internship, please contact Diane Favro (dfavro at ucla.edu)

Foreign students should note that it is necessary to obtain a student visa, so that plans to visit UCLA need to be made several months in advance.